This is part two of an ongoing series I've been keeping up with by a law blogger. Super interesting stuff, to me. Can't speak personally for how accurate most of it is, but it seems well researched.
Balko is a fantastic writer and researcher. It will be accurate as much as it can be when telling someone else's story.
He wrote "rise of the warrior Cop," a great read about the militarization of local police.
I've just read the California portion, which is where I practice, but bookmarked for later. I would say the reporting is pretty accurate. I will say that I work for a contract firm, all we do is indigent defense.
I was struck by this quote - "Indigent defendants in the state are about 20 percent less likely to serve prison time if they’re represented by a dedicated public defender office than if represented by a contract employee. They’re about 40 percent less likely to serve time in jail."
I don't believe that's the case with my office - I certainly hope not. I know that we actually get better results on a consistent basis than the private attorneys who practice here, because I see it. It's not really clear if that applies to a fully staffed office that only does indigent defense, which is what we have, or to private attorneys who contract by the case.
I'm not aware of any counties that have both a true PD office and a contract firm, unless its just for conflicts. The point of the contract firm is to get the contract to act as the county PD. But I'm only familiar with about a dozen counties and it's a big state.
In my experience (as a prosecutor), public defenders as a whole do the best job handling cases, followed by private counsel as a whole, followed by appointed private defense as a whole. It’s completely backwards with the whole “public pretender” perception, but we all know perception doesn’t always match reality.
In my jurisdiction, the attorneys that sign up to be contract appointed counsel get paid significantly less than public defenders, with no benefits. They don’t have a dedicated office, it’s essentially just a list of solos willing to take indigent contract work when there’s a PD conflict or the PD’s office has overflow.
The caveat is they can also have their own paid clients, but in my experience most don’t have many paid clients. The result is the people doing the contract work tend to be people that either wanted to be PDs but couldn’t be hired at the PD’s Office, or attorneys that have a hard time finding clients. This is a sweeping generalization, and there are several really good appointed contract attorneys I work with though, and many bad PDs
It definitely varies. We have several local private attorneys who take overflow cases when both we and the alternate defense office conflict. Most of them have thriving private practices but take the PD cases because they understand the need. Overwhelmingly, they show the same diligence they do in their private cases.
But I’ve seen counties where the only indigent defense is as you describe and they seem far more haphazard in quality.
Pd offices tend to only exist in larger jurisdictions where the DA caseload makes it difficult for them to pursue jail time in less serious cases.
I’d be more interested to see how the stats compare on charged strike offenses.
Are you talking in CA? There are some pretty small jurisdictions with PDs. Shasta, Humboldt, Tulare, Yolo, Lassen, Siskyou, just from the top of my head.
Everywhere. And I used the word “tend” meaning it’s a trend, not an absolute rule. You will find far more smaller and more rural counties without a PD office at a rate much higher than metropolitan counties without a PD.
This is part two of an ongoing series I've been keeping up with by a law blogger. Super interesting stuff, to me. Can't speak personally for how accurate most of it is, but it seems well researched.
Balko is a fantastic writer and researcher. It will be accurate as much as it can be when telling someone else's story. He wrote "rise of the warrior Cop," a great read about the militarization of local police.
Gotta love practicing in a state specifically called out for its terribleness.
I've just read the California portion, which is where I practice, but bookmarked for later. I would say the reporting is pretty accurate. I will say that I work for a contract firm, all we do is indigent defense. I was struck by this quote - "Indigent defendants in the state are about 20 percent less likely to serve prison time if they’re represented by a dedicated public defender office than if represented by a contract employee. They’re about 40 percent less likely to serve time in jail." I don't believe that's the case with my office - I certainly hope not. I know that we actually get better results on a consistent basis than the private attorneys who practice here, because I see it. It's not really clear if that applies to a fully staffed office that only does indigent defense, which is what we have, or to private attorneys who contract by the case.
I think the report means a dedicated office rather than a panel. I think you’re good. 😉
What County?
Prefer not to say. But not big enough to remain anonymous.
There is also the self-selecting bias, it could be that cases with less likelihood to win tends to be outsourced to contract firms.
I'm not aware of any counties that have both a true PD office and a contract firm, unless its just for conflicts. The point of the contract firm is to get the contract to act as the county PD. But I'm only familiar with about a dozen counties and it's a big state.
That would save the dept time and make them look better.
In my experience (as a prosecutor), public defenders as a whole do the best job handling cases, followed by private counsel as a whole, followed by appointed private defense as a whole. It’s completely backwards with the whole “public pretender” perception, but we all know perception doesn’t always match reality. In my jurisdiction, the attorneys that sign up to be contract appointed counsel get paid significantly less than public defenders, with no benefits. They don’t have a dedicated office, it’s essentially just a list of solos willing to take indigent contract work when there’s a PD conflict or the PD’s office has overflow. The caveat is they can also have their own paid clients, but in my experience most don’t have many paid clients. The result is the people doing the contract work tend to be people that either wanted to be PDs but couldn’t be hired at the PD’s Office, or attorneys that have a hard time finding clients. This is a sweeping generalization, and there are several really good appointed contract attorneys I work with though, and many bad PDs
It definitely varies. We have several local private attorneys who take overflow cases when both we and the alternate defense office conflict. Most of them have thriving private practices but take the PD cases because they understand the need. Overwhelmingly, they show the same diligence they do in their private cases. But I’ve seen counties where the only indigent defense is as you describe and they seem far more haphazard in quality.
Pd offices tend to only exist in larger jurisdictions where the DA caseload makes it difficult for them to pursue jail time in less serious cases. I’d be more interested to see how the stats compare on charged strike offenses.
Are you talking in CA? There are some pretty small jurisdictions with PDs. Shasta, Humboldt, Tulare, Yolo, Lassen, Siskyou, just from the top of my head.
Everywhere. And I used the word “tend” meaning it’s a trend, not an absolute rule. You will find far more smaller and more rural counties without a PD office at a rate much higher than metropolitan counties without a PD.
I’m in wv; I guess I’ll have to be patient